Blogging as the New PR Tool

Blogging is defined as "a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links" according to marketingterms.com. It is most clearly understood as a mixture of one's personal thoughts and current events or reactions to certain happenings on the web. These blogs offer personal reference on these events and invite others to respond to the bloggings. It seems to be a more effective way of information dissemination through word of mouth where bloggers who trust each other can learn and react to others.

The emergence of blogging as a tool for public relations is a new and effective way for companies to reach the public on an individual basis. Before blogging became a norm, the old public relations strategies seem more or less barbaric. Meaning, reaching the public was an impersonal experience where these large firms used other large firms to inform the public of products and information. This old form consisted of press releases where someone would produce a highly scrutinized piece of information and send it out to newspapers just hoping that a reporter would pick up on the event or news worthy story. The Internet has produced a new and effective way of displaying and transferring information for every individual. While there are countless ways in which the Internet can produce this vital information, blogging is one of those ways and is something that is growing at a rapid pace. The website www.searchenginejournal.com has put it best by saying that blogging is this "new form of communication is an oxymoron; mass intimacy." Essentially, blogging is "mass intimacy" because it is an individual's personal idea or thought displayed for anyone with Internet access to view.

A good example of how the old trend of press releases has seen its match was when Google hired Vint Cerf as Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist in 2005. The day of the hiring Google could have very easily sent out a mass press release to every major newspaper in the world with a guarantee that it would have been reported on. However, they went a very different way and Cerf himself posted on a blog about his position and his excitement about the job. While 2005 was not too long ago, it was still early in the era of blogging and Vint Cerf put the Google bloggings on the map (by the way the blogging post was called Cerf's Up at Google!)

Companies are not just using blogging to introduce new CEOs, CFOs and the like, these companies are also using blogs to announce new products as well as acting as spin doctors on certain issues. Yahoo has been using their blog, the Yahoo Search Blog, to announce new aspects to their search engine website such as Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search. The idea behind using these bloggings as opposed to the traditional press releases is that once someone sees the new tool on the Yahoo Search Blog they can go to it right from the website without having to change websites (even though typing in a new URL does not seem hard, we Americans like things easy and Yahoo has certainly been aiding us with that). Additionally, Yahoo has been using their blog to respond to some criticism over certain aspects of their site. Instead of directly responding to these criticisms, Yahoo has been posting about what they are doing to improve their quality and development of new ideas. This way the company can guide the readers and use it as another tool for Public Relations.

This new concept is the latest in the Public Relations field and is something that everyone involved in the PR industry should learn about. In fact, it is just another way in which the PR world can reach the American public and may also be a more reliable source for consumers. The idea that someone can learn about an event or product from someone with firsthand experience helps with dependability. As this is such a new concept, it is fun that we are all learning about this great new tool together.